Great product, but the legitimate market is tiny! They will sell the bulk of them to posers. Imagine some dude paddles out on the coast of florida with one of these on!

Not really as applicable to kiters. We benefit from padding, and the ongoing buoyancy of a little foam to help with the now you need it, now you don't, oops now you need it again nature of wiping out with a kite and various boards. Prefer the streamlined nature, padding, warmth and buoyancy of some of the neoprene pull over vests currently on the market that are tailored to fit with a waist harness. Dangly toggles for kiters.... nah.

If your flirting with thin ice, that will just make sure they find your cold dead bones! Can you imagine riding in winter with one of those on. Likely a lot harder to climb out onto ice with two big bladders inflated on your chest. Put it under your coat? Nah, on Top... yeah then you look like a kiting santa. Red vest complete with hanging ornaments.

Researching the conditions, knowing the regional hazards and a good dose of common sense is the answer to kiting on ice and snow.

For me whether this is on water or thin ice , a VFI will always be of good help . Of course what you say makes sense and this is the way I think .There are differents softs spots appearing every years on lakes for some reasons and I'd rather float while trying to get off the water with icepicks than feeling really heavy and not even be able to lift my body up to the edge of the ice . We most of the time sail two or three persons at the same time , we do have iceboats , icebuggy and skis of course and it would be of a good help to try to rescue someone floating ....I do wear a floating coat like a Mustang type but this is quite big and you can't move as well as you'd like , so this is easy to make the decision not to wear it once in a while to feel free .